New from Cistercian Publications

Christian de Chergé
A Theology of Hope

Christian de Chergé was the prior of the Cistercian community at Tibhirine, Algeria, whose members were killed apparently by Muslim "extremists." Their last days were fictionalized in the movie Of Gods and Men:


From the publisher's description:
"De Chergé saw his monastic vocation as a call to be a person of prayer among persons who pray, that is, among the Muslim friends and neighbours with whom he and his brothers shared daily life. De Chergé’s writings bear witness to an original thinker who insists on the value of interreligious dialogue for a more intelligent grasp of one’s own faith."

Will we discover a problematic sort of ecumenism being described in the book? Or is this summary just insufficient? I think he may provide one model for evangelizing to Muslims, but not a model to be adopted by all. There is the question of whether the monks should ahve been there in the first place, and if their witness was in anyway obscured or hindered by their association with the French state. If so, would it have been better if they had left and just prayed for the conversion of that land's inhabitants?

Related:
The Monks of Thibhirine by John W. Kiser

Also from Cisterican Publications -

The Great Beginning of Cîteaux
A Narrative of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order
The Exordium Magnum of Conrad of Eberbach

Gregory the Great On the Song of Songs
(see also the collection of Forty Gospel Homilies)

Lovers of the Place
Monasticism Loose in the Church
Francis Kline, OCSO

"Abbot Kline invites all the baptized to a participation in the monastic charism now loose in the Church at large."
I don't see that the charism is now loose in the Church at large. It may be a helpful model for helping the laity understanding community and stability. What is Abbot Kline's diagnosis of what ails contemporary monasticism?

Hildegard of Bingen, Homilies on the Gospels

What of the 2009 German movie about her? It's probably lousy. The NYT review, NPR, and NCR.



Margarethe von Trotta On Her New Film “Vision” – The Life Of Hildegard von Bingen
Zeitgeist